Kids of yesterday
by Batty28
Summary: A young Jonathan Crane meets a curious boy and a curious girl by the names of Edward and Mist. ONE SHOT!


The Scarecrow, The Riddler and the Sphinx.

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It was a well known fact that the place known as Georgia was in some parts quite harsh and barren, well at least that was all young Jonathan Crane ever saw of the place.

Barren, harsh and unforgiving if you were weak and he was considered to be weak where he lived, simply because he was tall, but thin and odd.

He didn't know what was so odd about himself, but apparently he was odd or at least that's what the other kids thought of him, his Great Granny on the other hand… well she said he was born in darkness and was a sin himself.

A mistake for lack of a better word was actually what she was calling him.

Jonathan knew this, he didn't know why she bothered trying to cover it up with all her talk of religion, it was quite obvious what she thought of him.

It didn't help any that he was born out of wedlock and that in itself was a sin to his Great Granny, who was probably the most religious person in all of Georgia just so happened to be the only living relative he knew.

He had a mother… somewhere but she had either left or.. knowing Great Granny, had been forbidden to stay in the house for the terrible sin she had done and had taken Jonathan away from his mother so that he could punish the 'demon' child of his sin of simply being conceived.

Jonathan, for his part, hated the small place of Georgia he was forced to call home, because in his mind it was actually hell and he was left with the devil herself when he got home.

The kids at school… oh sure they hurt and it was painful when they kicked him and called him names and beat him up just because they could. But it was nothing compared to the hours of labour he had to do for Great Granny in the blistering heat and it certainly didn't match up to the pain he got whenever he entered…. that place.

A caw from above him had Jonathan's heart in his throat and he looked up startled at the black crow perched on top of a branch overlooking the road he was walking along.

It stared at him for a long time with black beady eyes as he equally stared back at it with wide ice blue eyes, too scared to move.

The crow suddenly cawed again and Jonathan jumped before he ran as fast as he could away from the black feathered creature and then he ran into his least favourite person.

This one boy always waited for him by the same tree.

Jonathan by now knew the drill and was already searching through his pockets to give him his lunch money.

The bigger boy snatched it off him before he hit Jonathan a few times for good measure and then ran off with his prize, leaving Jonathan curled up on the floor all alone.

Once he was certain the threat was gone, Jonathan slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off.

Granny hated it if he came back and his clothes were dirty and he didn't want to be in any trouble with her today.

But now he had no money for lunch and would have to go starving again.

It was the weekend, but Granny didn't quite understand that about Saturday and she refused to feed him in the house so would send him out with a small amount of change, but unfortunately for Jonathan, the bullies had soon learnt this and took advantage, so very often he went lunch times on Saturdays with no food.

He supposed he should be grateful he didn't hurt him anymore, but really the only time Jonathan would be grateful was when he got away from this dreadful place.

All was quiet and he was alone, save for the few black crows and the lowly scarecrow at the edge of the field that seemed to be staring at him with black buttons for eyes and his stitched up smile.

A whistle caught his attention and he span round expecting to see one of the bullies but he was treated with the sight of a boy he didn't recognise in a bright green t-shirt with brown shorts and old green converse or very cheap versions of the popular shoes.

The shoes looked like they must be the only pair he owned because they were rough around the edges and the laces themselves look worse for wear and they weren't tied at all.

The boy grinned at Jonathan's confused expression, showing that he was still young because he had a gap in his teeth where obviously he had recently lost one.

Jonathan must have only been a few years older then him, then again looks can be deceiving.

The boy suddenly chucked something at him, and much to Jonathan's surprise he caught it, but an even bigger surprise was the fact that it was an apple. It was food and best of all there was no one else around to take it.

Jonathan though, simply stood staring dumbly at the apple that had been tossed to him, he didn't really know what to do or think.

"Ya know I didn't chuck you that apple for fun," the boy called from the tree he was leaning against, eating his own apple and not looking at Jonathan at all.

Jonathan blinked before he cautiously took a bite from the red apple and he couldn't help but hum in appreciation of the taste.

"You better eat that up quick, Mist'll be here soon and she won't like it I gave you her apple."

Jonathan blinked and looked over at the curious boy before he took a few uncertain steps towards him. "Who are you?"

The boy in green looked back at him and then Jonathan noticed he had a few cuts on his face and his knees had plasters on them as well as his elbows. The boy's dark brown almost black hair was tussled too not really giving the look of being well kept at all.

He grinned at him and shrugged slightly. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

Jonathan contemplated this for a moment before he looked back at the apple in his hand. "I'm Jonathan."

"Edward," the boy greeted and pushed himself away from the tree as he walked over to him. "My friend will be coming here soon, so could you please eat the apple."

"Why? Was it meant to be her's?"

Edward shrugged. "I can buy Mist a new apple, besides you looked like you needed it more then her, trust me," he looked Jonathan up and down before a smirk stretched across his face. "You're almost as thin as that scarecrow over there."

Jonathan flinched at the name and turned around quickly to hide the fact that the name itself hurt.

"Sorry," Edward muttered. "Didn't know that would upset you. Anyway, Mist'll be here soon, oh she'd like to meet you, I know she will!"

Jonathan turned back to Edward frowned once more at him. "What will you tell her when I've eaten the apple."

"Tell her to get a new apple?" Edward shrugged with a smile before he shook his head. "Nah, I'd say I dropped it on the way here, she'll probably steal mine anyway."

"I haven't seen you here before."

"Oh, Mist and her family are taking me on holiday, we're just passing through here. I got bored and Mist did too so we wondered off, last I saw she was at the book shop. She'll find me. She always does."

"Where are you heading?"

"Us? Well, we're heading to Gotham City," Edward beamed at him. "It's the first road trip I've ever done and I kinda like the idea of Gotham, it sounds spooky and it's also got one of the greatest libraries there."

"You like books?"

"Yep, like video games too! I'm what my peers would call a nerd, but I myself would call a genius."

Jonathan frowned slightly at the Edward's sudden narcissistic point of view on himself but Edward smiled at him and for some reason he felt calmer. Safe of all things.

"You like reading don't you? I could tell," Edward grinned. "What you read? I personally like murder mysteries and stuff like that. I was thinking about becoming a detective someday, but.. I doubt that'll happen."

"I like to read Poe," Jonathan smiled. "The 'raven' is one of my favourites."

"What about Lewis Carrol?"

"Alice in Wonderland or Alice through the looking glass?"

"Ya know it's actually named 'Alice's adventures in Wonderland' not Alice in Wonderland. You can blame Disney for the mistake in the name."

Jonathan blinked a few times before he noticed a girl coming towards them, raven black hair and emerald green eyes, wearing a white blouse and emerald green shorts with gold sandals. Her general look spoke of higher class then what Jonathan himself was and truth be told he was slightly intimidated by her.

A single necklace of an ankh hung around her neck and she looked over at Edward and smiled.

"Eddie! There you are," she smiled and ran up to him before he turned to look at Jonathan raised a curious eyebrow. "Who's your friend?"

"Mist, this is Jonathan," Edward explained as he pointed to Jonathan. "Jonathan this is Mist."

Jonathan quickly hid the apple behind his back making Mist laughed.

"Too late, already saw it."

"The other kids were bulling him," Edward explained. "Took away his lunch money I'm guessing."

"Lunch money on a Saturday?"

Jonathan shrugged. "My Great Granny doesn't like to feed me inside the house."

Mist frowned slightly. "A little strange?"

Something flashed in Jonathan's ice blue eyes and then he quickly went back to normal. "I'm used to it," he shrugged before he took a seat on the floor in the grass.

Mist faltered slightly at the shift in his eyes, it was like there was something hiding behind his timid exterior, something she knew all too well.

"Jonathan likes, Poe," Edward grinned as he sat down next to him in the grass, Mist followed suit and she shifted closer to Edward. "And he's smart."

"You only call people smart if they answer one of your riddles."

"Riddles?" Jonathan quizzed as he stared at the two. They were an odd friendship, they didn't really seem to fit with the clothes they were wearing.

Mist nodded her head. "He loves riddles, I nick named him Riddler at one point cause it ft him so well."

Edward suddenly snapped his fingers and he grinned. "I got one! I appear to you at the worst of times, I keep you safe I keep you fine, I visit the weak but seldom the bold, what am I?"

Jonathan paused for a few moments before he smiled. "Fear."

"Correct!" Edward laughed before he leaned back again. "Yeah, you're smart."

Mist laughed slightly and shook her head before she got to her feet. "Well, we gotta go now, Edward," she said pulling him to his feet.

Jonathan frowned at the fact his new friends were leaving, they were the only friends he had and he hardly knew them.

"Oh… alright then…" Edward whispered before he turned to Jonathan and smiled. "Well it was nice meeting you."

"Yeah… and you," Jonathan drawled, his southen accent extremely strong now he was slightly upset.

"Don't worry Jon," Edward grinned. "You might see us again, hey maybe you'll become famous!"

With that said, Edward and Mist ran off towards the car and Edward frowned slightly at Mist.

"Why did we have to leave?"

"I don't know, Edward, I just got a weird vibe from him, that's all."

"What sort of vibe?"

"A.. takes one to know one vibe and did you see his eyes?"

"Yeah they were blue."

"They were creepy," Mist hissed before she looked back and frowned at the boys figure. "Geez he really does look like a scarecrow."

THE END.

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 **Note: Just a simple one shot. It came in my head and refused to leave so yeah, hope you like it :D**


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